Another picnic photo

Another photo from the picnic. I was so busy zipping around, I didn't get work party photos, maybe someone else did.

MEMORIAL DAY PICNIC & WORK DAY

Memorial Day picnic was huge success. The work day started with a "breakfast" of cinnamon buns and coffee, then to work, fixing the two walk bridges and filling a few potholes. Then lunch was served and everyone went home for a nap. Dinner was at 6pm and many lot owners, permanent residents, local friends and other visitors were there. The weather cooperated, no one had a heart attack, so it was a great Ice Mountain day.

A visit to West Virginia’s Ice Mountain

(Suggested by Lew Townsend)

By Emily Corio

Listen Now (6:39)

December 31, 2008 ·

This story originally aired on July 31, 2008. It was rebroadcast on Dec. 31, 2008, as part of our "Best of 2008" series.

On a mountain in eastern West Virginia, plants that are normally found in arctic regions manage to survive. The place is appropriately named Ice Mountain.

That’s because ice is visible in small natural openings at the base of the mountain throughout much of the year.

The Nature Conservancy bought Ice Mountain in 1991 and allows guided tours through the preserve.

A tour of Ice Mountain starts in the community of North River Mills. Local resident, Terry Bailes, leads tours on behalf of The Nature Conservancy.

Bailes points out the rare plants and explains Ice Mountain’s cooling phenomenon.

In addition to knowing about Ice Mountain’s environment, Bailes also knows a lot about its history.

“They would talk about getting ice on the mountain for the Sunday school picnic, which they would have 200 people,” said Bailes. “And with that ice they made ice cream and lemonade. Everybody in the neighborhood talked about how good ice mountain lemonade was.”

West Virginia University Geology and Geography Professor Steven Kite is collecting temperature data at Ice Mountain. Inside some of the “vents,” or natural openings at the mountain’s base, Kite keeps thermometers, but he also brings a portable thermometer to take readings at the largest vent, the “Big One.”

“There’s a marked temperature contrast if you get over next to the vent, you can feel cold air coming out,” said Kite.

On the day we visited Ice Mountain the outside temperature was 80 degrees, but just inside the “Big One” vent, the temperature was only 44 degrees.

That’s actually one of the warmer temperature readings here. 35 degrees is the year round average. Why is that?

One common theory is that Ice Mountain’s deep rock, or talus, slope traps cold air, snow and ice.

The nooks and crannies in the rock slope are able to hold onto the cool air throughout the year, because cold air is denser and sinks.

The rock slope does not absorb the warmer outside air very well either.

But some have also wondered if Ice Mountain’s cooling effect comes from age old ice, buried in these rocks. Kite doubts that.

“There is certainly ice in the vents up until late May,” Kite said. “What’s going on underneath of the talus slope is hard to determine.

“Typically in the Appalachians we’re looking at six to 12 feet of loose boulders in a talus slope. Here, our geophysics suggests there may be 60 feet of loose boulders and a lot more void space for storage of ice and storage of cold air,” said Kite.

Kite says as many as 150 vents at Ice Mountain act as drains, releasing the cold air that’s trapped under this thick rock slope.

Unexpected plants grow where the cool air flows out.

“This is the Appalachian Woodfern, which grows on moss. It’s one of the rare plants that we’re monitoring on the mountain,” said Bailes. “They, at one point, thought that it was extinct, but as you can see, we have a number of ferns growing here near the cold vents.”

“Bristly Rose is the most widespread rose in the world, but occurs in the Canadian and Siberian Arctic,” said Kite. “It’s not that it’s a rare plant in the world, it’s a rare plant here.”

A tornado hit Ice Mountain in June and several trees fell onto the path. One of the vents that Kite has monitored for more than five years is now in direct sunlight. He keeps a thermometer inside this vent.

“I have it set up to record temperatures every hour,” said Kite. “My data files on temperature here at Ice Mountain actually will no longer plot using Excel, because there are too many data points.”

Even with all of these readings, Kite says it’s not enough information to notice a pattern of warming temperatures.

“People have been coming to Ice Mountain for well over 200 years, and I have six to eight years of temperature data,” Kite said. “So it’s hard to make big interpretations out of that.”

However, anecdotal evidence suggests Ice Mountain is changing.

“We have a journal from one of the ladies who talked about getting ice from the mountain,” said Bailes. “Her journal would say: Sunday, went on the mountain to get ice to make ice cream. That would be almost every week, and I never saw enough ice that we could have made ice cream after the end of May.”

Also, a 1998 Environmental Protection Agency report on climate change in West Virginia said the ice around the vents is disappearing earlier in the year. The report said this could negatively impact the plants found here.

“If we see the temperature conditions break down, then this area would become a free for all for other species to take up the niches that these plants are now occupying,” Kite said.

Bailes would hate to see that happen to this special place.

“If you go down on a hot day, you have the ice vents, which are blowing out at 40 degrees, and you have the river right there; it’s wonderfully peaceful,” said Bailes.

Table enclosure for the Common Area

What $800.00 worth of timbers, rebar, steel cleats, lag screws, landscape cloth, six Tiki Torches and 15.5 tons of pea gravel looks like when it is all put together. As usual, the labor is free.

North River Mills - Ice Mountain Day

Saturday, May 16, 2009

"Each year the Bailes in cooperation with the Nature Conservancy brings you a delightful day of peace, quiet, great music, gentle breezes, nature tours, history tours, fun, food and fellowship in the North River Mills - Ice Mountain Day Festival"

(This is NOT a Ice Mountain Home Owners Association related event)

For More Information Please Visit:
www.historichampshire.org/nrm/events.htm

Historic Hampshire County, West Virginia

Post is copied from : www.historichampshire.org/hamphist.htm

Hampshire County

Lying just to the west of the great Valley of Virginia, Hampshire County, West Virginia has a rich and varied history. Once home to numerous tribes of prehistoric native Americans, the area was nearly empty and used only for a seasonal hunting ground when the white man first arrived. The fertile valleys of Hampshire's Potomac River tributaries were a welcome sight to the early settlers who longed for verdant, open spaces to satisfy their independent spirit.

Colonial Era Sometime in the 1730s and 1740s the trickle of explorers and settlers began. The migration was primarily from Pennsylvania rather than from the piedmont of Virginia.

County Established

In 1754, the opening year of the French and Indian War, Hampshire County was established with over twenty-six hundred square miles. It was the western frontier of the Colony of Virginia. Because Virginia's route to the upper Ohio River valley came through Hampshire County, the area became an important gateway to the developing west.

French and Indian War During the trying years of the French and Indian War, Hampshire bore the brunt of enemy attacks. Although Virginia was a long way from Canada, the French know that Virginia was one of the wealthiest and most populous Colonies and a leader in the push for British expansion to the west. It was because of this that Col. George Washington, Commander of the Virginia Regiment, built a chain of forts in Hampshire County as the northern bulwarks of his western line of defense. Col. Washington was familiar with the area, having traversed it for five seasons as a surveyor for Lord Fairfax, the proprietor of the Northern Neck Proprietary. During the terrible days of the first half of the French and Indian War, many settlers fled to more peaceful areas; many who stayed died on their farms at the hands of ravaging warriors. Before the fall of Fort Duquesne to Gen. Forbes in 1758, much of Hampshire County was devoid of people. After the war, the pace of settlement increased. In 1762 Romney was incorporated as the county seat. In 1787 Watson (later named Capon Springs) was incorporated at the medicinal springs in the south-east part of the county.

Transportation Routes Established In 1786 a state road had been completed from Winchester to Romney. As the frontier of the new nation moved westward, more roads were required to serve the expanding nation. In the 1830s the Northwestern Turnpike was built, eventually running from Winchester through Romney to Clarksburg and on to Parkersburg on the Ohio River. By 1845 a stage line ran from Romney to Morgantown and Parkersburg.

Civil War

The far western counties of Virginia were developing as industrial centers along the Ohio Rivers, but Hampshire and its neighboring counties remained rural, agricultural areas. It was during the war that Virginia was split, and Hampshire County became part of the new state of West Virginia. Hampshire's placement in the new state was a matter of Federal politics and did not reflect the sentiments of the people of the county.

Confederate Sympathies

Counties to the west had ties to the North by way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the C&O canal; they had little in common with the commerce and government of Virginia. Hampshire County, on the other hand, was linked more to the Shenandoah Valley, and Hampshire's colonial heritage gave it stronger ties with the Commonwealth. Therefore, its sympathies were Southern. "Stonewall" Jackson had an early compaign in the County that attempted to cut the Federal government's transportation link to the western states that ran along the Potomac River, Hampshire's northern boundary. Because of this strategic location there were many troop movements through the county and Romney is said to have changed hands 56 times during the war.

Hampshire County raised thirteen Confederate companies for the war but only one Union company. After the Civil War on Sept. 26, 1867, Hampshire's citizens dedicated what was perhaps the first Confederate Memorial in the United States. It still stands today in Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney.

Modern Era

The fact that Indian Mound Cemetery is the burial site of two West Virginia governors (John J. Jacob - 4th Governor; John J. Cornwell - 15th Governor) evidences the county's involvement in the new State's political life.

Natural Beauty

Hampshire County has great natural beauty. Although the area is not now as bountiful for the hunter as was true in George Washington's day, Hampshire has always been an abundant land. The rivers are wonderful for swimming, and they abound with fish. The skies above are filled with wildfowl. The Trough, a cut that the South Branch River makes through the mountains, is one of the best locations for spotting the majestic bald eagle. The Potomac Eagle, a sightseeing passenger train, runs from spring through fall so tourists may view the breath-taking scenery and the eagles.

The several communities with "Spring" in their name give a hint to another natural treasure of the area known to early settlers. Even today, Capon Springs resort is renowned for its lovely wooded setting and its wonderful hospitality. Ice Mountain on the North River is a geologic anomaly with rare flora near its ice caves. Today it is maintained by the Nature Conservancy. Throughout the county there are fields, streams and mountains that offer a feast for the eyes and for the spirit.

Romney, where the first Literary Society in the state was founded in 1819, is home to the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind. Hampshire County is a land mindful of its colonial heritage and the precious traits of character that made it strong. It is a place where the visitor will be made to feel welcome.

IMA Work

Blowing out mud, leaves, groundhogs, etc., from culverts using SVFD pumper truck.

Jones Addition

Creature Feature

We have been seeing a lot of ticks this year, more than ever before. We can remember years ago when we never, ever got a tick on us. Those days are gone. We have never, however, had a tick actually latch onto us, maybe because we are finding and removing them in time.

Kathleen saw what she described as a really, really, really big snake near the Phase One side of the swing bridge. She said it was bigger than a black snake and very fat. Fat snakes, rather than being victims of obesity, are generally poisonous, so we need to watch out for this one. It was described as being black, with turquoise markings, which didn't match up with any species in the snake book. Until further identified, we will refer to this one as The Dreaded West Virginia Turquoise Mamba.

Also, last week I killed a baby copperhead in a wood pile near my house, only the second copperhead I have ever found on my property.

All this is just a fact of life, you have to deal with snakes and other noxious critters whether you live in Ice Mountain or the D.C. beltway. Only, out here, they aren't interested in stealing your money.

MEMORIAL DAY PICNIC & WORK DAY

Hi Folks,

Can you believe it’s finally Spring! Not only that, our Memorial Day Work Day/Picnic is fast approaching—

Saturday, May 23.

I’m here to get a count on the number of folks to feed for the Work Day crew and the Picnic in the evening.

Work Day Crew:

Our Ice Mountain Chuck Wagon will be providing a small breakfast (sweets and coffee) at the common area at 9:00am sharp.
The Chuck Wagon will be back at the common area for a brown paper bag lunch (sandwiches and such) around 1:00pm.
The plans are to work on the swinging bridges, cleanup the sides of the river, some road work, and perhaps other things. Sounds pretty ambitious doesn’t it!
You’ll need to bring your work gloves, cordless power drill (fully charged), hammer, and whatever basic hand tools you have. Meet at the Common Area at 9:00am for assignments and food.

Picnic:

As we have done in the past, the Association will provide hot dogs, hamburgers, the stuff that goes with them, some soda, and water.
Association Members, please bring a dish to pass. I’ll not repeat my baked bean message from last year—you know who you are. But we did miss them!
Anyway, bring something that you like to fix and/or that’s easy to travel. Example: Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, Cole Slaw, Pasta Salad, Tomato Salad, Veggie Salad, Chips N Dip, !Baked Beans! Desserts can be anything as long as the first ingredient is sugar. Remember, there are no lost points for store bought goodies.
If you don’t like hot dogs and hamburgers, bring something you’d like to throw on the grill. (I know I should be more specific……) Same goes for drinks. If there’s a special beverage that goes down smooth after a long day, bring it. (Bring one for me too—just kidding!)

Now---What I Need From You---!

Please—Pretty Please----Reply to this email and let me know if you will be part of the Work Day Crew. We need to know how many will be there for breakfast and lunch so we can feed you.
Also, Pretty Please—let me know how many will be coming to the Picnic. As always, bring any guests you have visiting. Just let me know the number in your party. If you want to let me know what you’ll bring as a dish to pass, I’ll do my best to do some coordinating. If not, we’ll do our best with 5 dishes of potato salad and 15 dishes of baked beans (we’re outside—it doesn’t matter).

Now that you’re at the end of this note, I’m going to tell you the time of the Picnic—6:00pm.

PLEASE – RSVP – BY – 5/14/09 with the number for the Work Crew & Picnic

NOTE: If it rains, the Work Crew will be canceled and the Picnic will be held in one of the barns.

By the way—Happy 20th Anniversary to the Ice Mountain community! You’ll be hearing more about this later.

Hope to hear from ya soon!!

See Ya Saturday May 23!!!

Connie

Low Water Bridge Work

Trying again.

Bed Time for Bonnie

I think I now have more of a idea how this site works, my main problem was that I was not logging in.

Still not sure that this site is the way for us to go.